Trust hits ambulance targets for first time

Morecambe Bay’s health trust has paid tribute to its staff after hitting ambulance handover targets for the first time in its history.

Jackie Daniel, chief executive of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT), said that it was down to the “hard work and dedication” of staff that also led to the trust achieving its Accident and Emergency Four Hour Standard for the first time since January.

Jackie Daniel said: “We all know that seeing and treating our patients in a timely manner isn’t all about targets. Treating our patients as soon as possible - and as safely as possible - contributes to improved outcomes for patients.

“May also included, for the first time, our achievement of the 15 minute handover target between the ambulance service and the A&E. I am sure you can all appreciate the benefit of this for our patients, but also for the wider community as ambulances can be re-deployed much sooner. “Staff have worked really hard together to achieve this and I’d like to thank them all for their continued hard work.”

The Accident and Emergency Four Hour Standard means that all NHS Trusts have to see and treat 95 per cent of patients, and either admit them to hospital or discharge them home within four hours of them arriving in the department. The trust achieved 95.89 per cent of patients seen within four hours.

The trust also achieved the 15 minute ambulance handover time target for the first time ever last month.

To achieve this target, trusts have to ensure that it does not take longer than 15 minutes from arrival of an ambulance to the handover of a patient to clinical staff.

The trust said that Patient Safety Flow meetings, held four times a day, seven days a week, has made a big difference to performance.